Reformatting, RAID 0'ing 2 SSD's, Fresh W7 Install

[tbris84]

I currently have W7 installed on one of my 128GB Samsung SSD's and my second SSD is just a backup/game storage drive. I would like to set them both up in a RAID 0 configuration with a fresh W7 install. Is this possible to do? What is the best way to go about it? (ASRock Z77 Extreme4 motherboard)

[bigball1]

The same way you setup your seagates is the same way you setup SSD. Put your SSD on your sata 6gb (sata3) ports tho.

[ir_cow]

go into your bios and set the drives to raid and when installing windows use the raid drivers that come on the mb cd ( or from the website ) . I'm sure someone made a guide on here somewhere

[wevsspot]

tbris - step for step;

 

1. Attach both SSDs to the Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports

 

2. Enter BIOS SETUP UTILITY Advanced screen

 Storage Con? guration

 

3. Set

[tbris84]

 

tbris - step for step;

 

 

Thanks a lot!  I have just one issue, it doesnt show my two SSDs. Any idea why? It shows me two 3TB drives, but no SSDs.

Edited April 8, 2013 by tbris84

[wevsspot]

For now disconnect the supersized Seagate TB drives.  All you want connected at this point are the two SSD's.  Do a full CMOS clear, including removing the motherboard battery, shorting the CMOS jumper etc.  Reboot, get into BIOS and load optimized defaults.  Before exiting, go back to your SATA configuration page and set the Intel 6Gb/s ports to [RAID] again.  Reboot and see if motherboard picks up the drives now.  If not, check and see if you are running the latest BIOS.  If not flash to the latest BIOS for your motherboard.  The RAID BIOS updates are included in the main motherboard BIOS updates.  Need to make sure that both are up to date.

 

If that doesn't do the trick, don't forget the normal common sense stuff; make sure drives have SATA power connectors attached, make sure SATA cables are firmly secured, try different SATA cables etc.  Also might want to check the cpu socket for bent pins............

 

Keep me posted.

[cjloki]

 

 

 

tbris - step for step;

 

 

Thanks a lot! I have just one issue, it doesnt show my two SSDs. Any idea why? It shows me two 3TB drives, but no SSDs.

you'll probably have start in bios and change the bios mode to achi first then go to windows drive and storage monitor and enable them then back to bios and follow wev's direction...i just did this a couple of months back and they work great together...good luck with:]that

[tbris84]

Thanks for the timely replies. Apparently it was the SATA3 drivers at fault, or rather me not having them on the Intel SATA controlled ports. New problem though, the RAID is created but I cannot install Windows 7 Home Edition on it . Not sure why this is, but I don't have much time to screw with it today. 

Edited April 8, 2013 by tbris84

[tbris84]

I appreciate the step-by-step Wev, once I realized the BIOS had a <RAID> option for both the Intel and ASMedia SATA3 ports it worked perfectly for creating the RAID. If only the Windows installation would go through. I've reformatted again on the single SSD. I may give it another shot if I get any more advice as to a solution. Otherwise I'll suffer with my single SSD performance, lol. 

Edited April 8, 2013 by tbris84

[bigball1]

What drivers are you using in the windows install?

 

Just whats on the DVD?

[wevsspot]

tbris - this is really being complicated by all the additional drives that you have connected during the Windows OS install routine.  For now, disconnect all the other drives except for the two SSDs.  Ensure that the two SSDs are connected to the Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports.

 

Go back into the RAID BIOS and delete the existing array and then recreate it following the steps I outlined above.  Save your changes and begin the Windows install.  When you get to the "Where do you want to install Windows" screen the only partition there should be with a size of approximately 238.5Gb.  At this point you should be able to finish the Windows installation.

 

You should not need any special drivers to install a RAID set attached to the Intel controller.

 

You can add back your other hard drives after you get the SSD installation done.